Unparalleled Silence
by FireBowser
Summary: Reddit submission for Nosleep contest.


Day: 25 June, 2009.  
>Time: 2:15 a.m.<p>

This is a bone-chilling story that I would love to share with the regulars here at nosleep.

I awoke in my tent, stretching tiredly. The sound of a gentle breeze whisped about. I studied my surroundings, still attempting to rub the sleep from my eyes.  
>After observing the absence of light and the fact that the nine other sleeping bags remained unmoving, I determined that it must be past midnight. I quietly collected my cell phone from underneath my pillow and glanced at the time, shielding the bright light with my hand. 2:15. I thought briefly about why I had awoken at such a late hour. As if on cue, the call of nature sent uncomfortable tingles through my body. I wanted to return to sleep; I knew we weren't suppose to leave the tent this late at night, or without an adult. But, after reminding myself that I had been to this camp every year since I was twelve, I hopped out of bed, and tiptoed over the other sleeping bags towards the exit.<p>

[The bathroom located in our Church's camping establishment was well over five hundred feet from where we had set up our tent. For those of you who have been camping before, outhouses do tend to have a rancid odor. Our particular outhouse smelled horrid, and was located amongst jagged rocks, making it difficult to sleep near. As such, we always set up our tent a fair distance from the painful rocks and awful stench.]

I stepped out of the tent, shivering at the initial nip of the cool summer air. After quickly scanning the field, I realized that I couldn't see anything, let alone find the dirt path that led to the bathrooms. I poked my head into the tent and swiped a flashlight that had strayed from its owner. I pushed the switch forward, and the path before me became engulfed in bright white light. With the safety of the flashlight's illumination, I began walking towards the bathroom.

[The field in which we set up camp is bordered by a dense, dark forest. During the day, its easy enough to find your way about. But, the night gives it an entirely different character. After the sun has gone down, the trees almost seem to converge upon one another, creating a dense, dark, unfamiliar void of shadows. We, being the intelligent campers that we pride ourselves for, set up our tent a mere fifteen feet from this horror cliche. The dirt path that leads to the bathrooms forces you to hug the tree line, bringing you close enough to reach out and caress the bark.]

To say that I felt spooked and uneasy about this bathroom trip would be a mild understatement. I knew from the moment that I left the tent that something didn't feel right. (But, isn't that a similarity that all horror stories share?) I warily wandered down the walk, attempting to stifle the terrifying thoughts that had already begun to circulate through my unnecessarily creative mind. My senses had exaggeratedly embraced my surroundings, assaulting me with chilling feedback. I could hear every twig snapping about the forest. I witnessed, with unparalleled accuracy, the forest come to life about me; its shadows shifting into figures and dancing menacingly. My heart raced, sending every adrenal gland in my body into overdrive. Sweat poured down my face, making the chilly air feel downright frigid. I quickened my pace, struggling to keep a level head. I reached the bathrooms in record time. After I sat down to start my business, I concentrated on slowing my panicked breathing. After all, this was just my over-active imagination teasing me, right? When I finished, I stood. "It's all in your head", I kept repeating to myself. To this day I'm not sure how long I stayed in that stall. Eventually, I gathered the courage to make my trip back to the tent.

I exited the stall, briefly grimacing at the foul odor eminating from the area. Something seemed off about the smell at the time, but I wasn't about to investigate. I left the bathroom, trotting back to the tent at a slightly quicker pace. About halfway between the bathrooms and the tent, I stopped dead in my tracks. I didn't know why; my body had just frozen where I was walking. The desire to continue walking was overwhelming; but I couldn't bring my legs to move. I stood still, unable to do anything else. Then it hit me; the reason that my body had reacted to dramatically. The noises of the forest had ceased. Not just the horrific inventions of my imagination; the regular noises. The sound of the wind, the ever-so-slight rustle of the leaves, everything. The forest was absent of noise. One could not simply imagine what this felt like; it must be experienced to be properly understood. It was nothing like I had ever felt; like every single feeling that I had ever been familiarized with in this world just disappeared. My logic scrambled to understand how to interpret what was happening. This eerie alteration alarmed and frightened me. Without the aide of my familiarizations, the terror began to fill every inch of my body. It forced the hairs on my neck to stand on end, and goosebumps to impose themselves about my arms and legs.

What felt like hours later, I remained unable to run, and unable to comprehend. Just as I was about to attempt a step forward, a bloodcurtling scream echoed through the field, reverberating even louder inside my head. The scream was articulate and easy to understand, albeit unbearably loud. I collapsed to the ground, pushing my ears forcefully in, making a pathetic attempt at blocking out the abomination. But, it only seemed to get louder, as I realized it was my name being screamed. "" the shriek repeated, over and over. I squirmed relentlessly on the grass, competing unsuccessfully with the outcry for relief. If it were even possible, the shrieks got louder and more frequent, urging my other senses to bear part of the impossible load. Tears of agony escaped my tightly shut eyes, and I continued to kick and thrash on the ground. I tried to communicate my pain, yelling "STOP!", but without success. The bone-wrenching screams became louder still, causing a feeling that one could only interpret as an inside-out blender being turned on in each ear. I felt myself slipping into blackness, grateful for the easing of my pain. Eventually, nothing.

I felt a nudge on my shoulder. I registered that I was now lying on my back, and that it was daytime. I could see the bright orange light seeping through my eyelids. I felt a more insistent nudge this time. I wanted to respond, but I was physically drained, and unwilling to move. This time, I felt a pair of hands grasp my shoulders and roughly shake me. I slowly opened my eyes, groaning at the introduction of the disgustingly bright sun. I was looking at a bright blue sky, with the sun overhead. Noon, I thought. I glanced about me, confused at the collection of people. They were just the people from my camp, but they were all standing around me in a circle, concern etched within their expressions. The girl sitting next to me (whom I could only assume was the one that forced me awake) was speaking. I could see her lips forming sentences, but couldn't hear her. Simply a dull, muffled droan. I said "I can't hear you" out loud, hoping that she could hear better than me. What was that scream that I had heard? Where had it gone? Had I gone deaf from having to endure it? The girl next to me, Emily was her name, collected some dirt from the ground. She motioned to the dirt, and then to her own ear. I intuitively reached up to my own ear, and attempted to fit a finger inside. I quickly discovered what she meant; I had shoved dirt into my ears. I began freeing the dirt, all the while remaining face-up on the ground. When I finished digging the dirt from my other ear, I could hear the others around me more clearly. I caught a glimpse of blood on my hands, and asked Emily about it. She told me that my entire face was covered in blood that appeared to have come from my hears, eyes, nose and mouth.

"What happened last night?" Emily asked, clearly concerned about something other than me.

"I don't know.." I croaked. My throat felt like it was on fire.  
>"I went to the bathroom last night, and was on my way back. Screaming. What happened to the screaming?" I asked.<p>

At this point, everyone in the circle seemed to have noticed that I was awake. They had all been intently listening to my explanation, and exchanged looks of horror and worry when I mentioned the screaming.

"Kat, what screaming? We didn't hear anything last night. And that's not all..." she began, but I cut her off.  
>"Screaming, Emily! It was louder than a bat out of hell! It was screaming my name...it was so loud. Wait. What do you mean that's not all?" I stuttered, suddenly picking up on the feelings of discomfort in the group.<p>

"Well, Kat, Sarah went missing last night. We were asleep almost all night, but I woke up around 2:30, and noticed that you and Sarah were missing. I assumed that you guys had just gone to the bathroom, and went back to sleep. But, when I woke up, you guys weren't back yet. We found you here; you were unconcious and bleeding everywhere. But Sarah is..." Emily began to sob. I couldn't quite put everything together. Sarah...had I noticed her in the tent before I left? There was no way to tell. Everybody was huddled together in a giant pile of sleeping bags; I wouldn't have noticed if somebody was missing. Still, something kept nagging at the back of my aching head. A piece of the puzzle that I had missed; a piece that everybody else lacked.

Another camper approached me.

"Can you stand up?" said Taylor. I winced, but managed to get to my feet with her help, plus another camper. The pain in my head tripled, but I fought it back, trying to get a grasp on the current situation. I knew I should be upset about her disappearance, but something about what they were saying to me just...didn't feel right. I knew I had the answer, but I couldn't explain out loud why I felt that way. I just somehow magically knew the answer, but couldn't figure it out. Especially not with the pounding in my skull. I began to feel lightheaded, and collapsed. The same campers caught me, and set me on the grass. Taylor gently urged me back, letting me rest my head comfortably in her lap. She grabbed her water bottle and began gently ridding my face of dried blood. The other campers followed suit, sitting around us. I noticed that half of the group was missing; probably out searching for Sarah.

"Okay Kat. Could you try to tell us what happened last night, starting from when you left the tent?" asked Taylor. I nodded, unsure of my ability to do so.

"Sure. I woke up, and had to go to the bathroom. I know the camp really well, because I've been coming up here for four years, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to walk over there. I'm not sure if Sarah was still in the tent at that time; I didn't really notice anybody on my way out. I headed over to the bathroom, and had a weird feeling the whole way. I guess it was just really dark and my mind was playing tricks on me. Anyway, I got to the bathroom, and cooled down a bit. There weren't any animals around, so I wasn't too worried. Then, I left the bathroom. There was this weird..." I trailed off.

"Kat?" the campers asked, concerned about my abrupt silence. I ignored them. The smell. The bathroom smelled different that night. It was a horrible, rotting, putrified smell, but I chose to ignore it because I was too scared to stay. I sat upright from Taylor's lap, knocking the water bottle out of her grip. Ignoring the protests and questions from the other campers, I scurried to my feet, ignoring the bouncing lights clouding my vision, and the pain in my head. I sprinted to the bathroom, terrified of what I already knew was there. I made it to the restroom, wheeling around the corner of it to reach its back side. What my gaze was met with made my stomach churn, and the pain in my head magnified to an indescribable intensity. I turned to the side, and wretched into the grass. As the other campers caught up with me, they witnessed what I had seen. They immediately turned away, looks of absolute disgust and horror seared into their eyes.

Pinned to the wall of the outhouse was Sarah, or what remained of her. Her hands and feet had been nailed to the wall with old, rusty nails. Her body was bruised and cut open from top to bottom. Her eyes had been pulled from their sockets, and placed in her lower jaw, which had been broken off and re-nailed to her skull. Her stomach had been cut open; her intestines spilled around the grass by the wall. Some of her intestines had been fashioned into jewelry, and strung around her neck. She had been completely stripped of clothing, and somebody had used her blood to write a thousands of words around the wall where her body was nailed. The first sentence said "you'll never hear us coming", written in neat handwriting, as if somebody had spent an hour making sure every letter was aligned. After that sentence, there were hundreds of repetitions of the same word. My name. Just "kat", spelled with too many "a's", as if mimicking the sound of a person...screaming it. The writing became bigger until it reached a single word, which had been given it's own space amongst the blood. It said "STOP" written in all caps. The writing that followed "STOP" continued to grow, just repetitions of my name, getting bigger and bigger until whoever did this ran out of room. I was positively horrified. Somebody had gone through a lot of trouble to cause my friend a slow, painful, agonizing, disgusting and violating death. They had basically written out her final words, and my cry to make the screams stop had been included. And that first sentence, "you'll never hear us coming". It shook me to the very bone. A trail of blood lead from the body, away from the restrooms. My eyes followed it, still partially wet from the amount, glistening in the sun. It lead away from the body, into the forest. As I raised my gaze, my eyes met the person waiting on the other end of the blood trail. I screamed as I recognized the murderer. It was me.

I awoke, screaming into the darkness of my bedroom, the image of Sarah's massacred body still fresh in my mind.

*Well, there you have it, Reddit. This was a nightmare that I had after attending my Summer Camp one year. Incredibly frightening, but also just a nightmare. Or was it?*


End file.
